Thank you for joining WITA International for this virtual panel during the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA) European Conference on Tuesday, March 24 at 9:30 AM ET / 2:30 PM CET which discussed “The European Approach to Dealing with Trade Uncertainty.”
Experts discussed developments in European trade policy and regulatory trends that shape the global business environment.
Featured Speakers:
Welcome by Crystal Eden, Executive Director-Member Services, World Trade Centers Association
Introduction by Kenneth I. Levinson, Chief Executive Officer, WITA – The International Trade Association
Anna Jerzewska, Founder, Trade & Borders
Kate Kalutkiewicz, Senior Managing Director, McLarty Associates
Eveline Kolk, Managing Director, World Trade Centers The Hague and Rotterdam
Atli Stannard, Special Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP Brussels
Moderator: Penny Naas, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Speaker Biographies
Moderator: Penny Naas, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Competitiveness, German Marshall Fund of the United States
Penelope (Penny) Naas is a global public policy leader who designs strategies on international economic issues that sit at the nexus of geopolitics, trade, and climate. She is an adviser for TradeExperettes, a global organization of women trade experts.
Naas has created innovative strategies and solutions for Citigroup and, more recently, for UPS as its president for international public affairs and global sustainability. She opened and was managing director of Citigroup’s first government affairs office in Brussels between 2007 and 2012 before leading UPS’s international team from 2012 to 2019. She started her career at the US Department of Commerce, where she worked for 13 years on international economic issues and advancing the commercial interests of US companies in Europe.
Naas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is on several boards and has co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Trade and Investment.
Anna Jerzewska, Founder, Trade & Borders
Anna Jerzewska is a globally recognised customs, trade facilitation and international trade expert with over 19 years of experience between academia, private and public sectors.
Anna help clients with all things customs and trade facilitation both in Europe and beyond and focus on high-impact advisory roles, particularly where organisations or companies face evolving trade policies or major regulatory shifts.
In addition to ad-hoc projects, Anna has two ongoing clients: she represents EuroCommerce, a European association of retailers, as their customs rapporteur in Brussels and supports CBAMBOO, a CBAM-focused, London-based start-up as their Customs and International Trade Lead.
Some of Anna’s most recent clients include the World Customs Organisation, the UN International Trade Centre, the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the OECD, the Department for Business and Trade, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Scottish Government, Welsh Government, Scottish Parliament and many other public bodies and organisations.
Anna was a Deputy Director at HMRC between 2022 and 2023 and advised on customs matters, border processes and trader readiness. In 2024 she was appointed by the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, to the Independent Monitoring Panel and commitment to Intertrade UK.
Anna is a member of the Department for Business and Trade UK (DBT) Customs Thematic Working Group, Associate Fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory and co-chairs the Trade Facilitation Committee at the British Chambers of Commerce in Brussels.
Former customs consultant for PwC, EY and KPMG in London, Anna also advised the British Chambers of Commerce for several years on customs and trade policy as the UK negotiated its relationship with the EU.
She represented the BCC at the Joint Customs Consultative Committee and Border Expert Advisory Group in the run-up to Brexit.
Anna holds a PhD degree in International Political Economy. Her academic research focused on trade agreements in the East Asian region, integrated supply chains, rules of origin and utilisation of preferential tariffs. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Waseda and a visiting lecturer at Keio University in Tokyo.
Kate Kalutkiewicz, Senior Managing Director, McLarty Associates
Kate Kalutkiewicz, Senior Managing Director, leads the McLarty trade practice and contributes to the firm’s Europe practice and McLarty Inbound.
Kate has managed complex challenges around global trade, industrial, and investment policy for nearly two decades. Her experience spans roles in government, particularly in Europe and South America, where she honed her skills in negotiating complex international agreements and navigating the nuance around public-private sector interactions.
Kate most recently served as Head of US Trade Policy for Amazon, where she advocated a broad range of international trade and economic issues with the US Government, touching several sectors, including retail, creative content production and distribution, cloud services, sustainable fleet, autos, and hardline manufacturing.
Prior to that, Kate served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Trade at the National Economic Council, where she developed and led US trade policy initiatives. During her White House tenure, she led interagency teams responsible for the US G7 Presidency and US positions on supply chain resiliency and support for the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before serving in the White House, Kate was the Senior Trade Representative at the US Mission to the European Union from 2016-2020. While in Brussels, she was the USTR’s primary interlocutor with the European Commission and Member State authorities responsible for trade.
Before her time in Brussels, Kate held the role of USTR’s Director for European Affairs (2011-2016) and served as Associate Chief Negotiator for the US in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. She began her career at USTR as its Director for Brazil and the Southern Cone (2007-2011), where she was the principal agency representative for implementing and managing US trade policy in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
Prior to USTR, Kate was a legislative assistant in the office of Senator James Talent (R-MO), where she supported the Senator on issues related to trade, foreign policy, homeland security, immigration, and the judiciary.
Eveline Kolk, Managing Director, World Trade Centers The Hague and Rotterdam
Ms. Eveline Kolk is Managing Director of WTC Rotterdam and WTC The Hague. She is responsible for both shaping the WTC concept based on the license and the strategy set out for the WTC in question and increasing brand awareness of the WTC businesses (national and international). For The Hague this meant positioning an existing office building as a (new) WTC, for Rotterdam this meant repositioning a long-standing monumental icon after a major renovation as the international trading house of Rotterdam with a high-quality facility level that is ready for the future.
Ms. Kolk collaborates intensively and maintains contact with stakeholders in the field of “Trade & Investment”, such as Mayors and Aldermen and institutions such as Rotterdam Partners and The Hague Business. She is a face to the outside world, also in the media. In addition, she’s responsible for optimal returns on the real estate with a dynamic mix of tenants (contract negotiations with new tenants, regular contact with the largertenants) , while proactively developing the high-quality facilities. Ms Kolk is managing the dedicated real estate management teams, the managers of the Business Centers, the marketing department, and the (external) real estate agents. In Rotterdam, she is also managing a multidisciplinary team that also includes architects and project managers during the renovation.
Atli Stannard, Special Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP Brussels
Atli Stannard advises clients on EU trade law and policy, technology regulation, and the governance of strategically significant industrial sectors, with a particular focus on the geoeconomic forces shaping European regulation, industrial policy, and the transatlantic relationship. Clients describe him as providing “exceptional levels of insight.”
Atli guides clients in highly regulated industries through complex EU policymaking processes, protecting and advancing their core business and regulatory priorities. He is a member of the firm’s Public Policy, International Trade, Sustainability, and Business & Human Rights practices.
Atli’s trade practice covers the full suite of EU trade instruments, including the EU Anti‑Coercion Instrument, trade defence investigations, customs classification and market‑access issues, investment-related tools (FDI and the foreign subsidies regulation), and environmental-related trade tools such as CBAM. He frequently advises on regulatory issues at the intersection of trade and technology—covering platform, data, AI, and competition policy—where digital and geoeconomic considerations converge.
His work also encompasses the EU frameworks governing medical technologies and other strategically important industrial sectors—such as automotive, and food and beverage—and includes supporting clients on environmental and EU ESG policymaking. Across these domains, he helps clients identify regulatory risks early, anticipate institutional dynamics, and build clear, actionable strategies—working closely with them to engage effectively with the European Commission, European Parliament, Council of the EU, and Member State and UK governments.
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